Monthly Archives: December 2014

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Well, I finally have been able to consistently get Jack to brush his teeth twice a day as well as let me brush them a little too, and all I had to do was bribe him with videos… I always hoped to not let Jack watch TV much or at all for as long as humanly possible, but I was so worried about his teeth getting cavities since he eats dried fruit and gummy vitamins and cookies (but they are all organic!). So we decided that dental hygiene was more important than brain development I guess and now he watches a few video clips in the morning and evening. He even asks to brush his teeth often, because he is sadly super addicted to watching videos now! It’s pretty depressing to me that no other strategy worked, but it’s also nice to have a few minutes to get things done while he is transfixed by the screen. I totally understand how people can put their kids in front of the TV for hours now, it’s like free babysitting! I can actually clean something without Jack simultaneously making an additional mess elsewhere, or I can sit down for longer than 2 minutes at a time and write an email or make a to-do list. The other positive thing is that now on our upcoming 5-hour flight to Pennsylvania we can have the videos as a backup in case Jack gets restless. I have been trying to make myself feel a little better about it by showing him only videos in Portuguese so he practices his other language, but then his dad showed him “the wheels on the bus” song in a cartoon and he is obsessed with that. We also found a youtube channel called TuTiTu that has super boring (aka not ADHD-causing) videos about making different things like a fire truck which Jack likes.

So there you go- my embarrassing secret to how my 2 year old brushes his teeth…

It’s kind of sad that this is the best picture I could find with my hair down

I didn’t get paid to write this or anything, but I wanted to share a new product I’ve been using for several months now and loving! I got the tea tree oil Soap for Goodness Sake shampoo bar because it had a 0 ranking on the EWG’s skin deep list which means no bad chemicals. I ended up loving it for many reasons!

You can use it as shampoo and as a soap bar so it eliminates needing separate shampoo, soap, and even conditioner!

It makes my hair less frizzy (I have really curly hair and believe it or not is used to dry way frizzier than in the picture above which is how it looks now with no product)

I find I no longer need conditioner, so that eliminates a step in the hair washing process

It works as well for dandruff as chemically other shampoos

It’s a solid so it’s easy to take on a trip and won’t spill in your bag. It also isn’t problematic for taking in a caryyon bag since it’s not a liquid

A few things that aren’t the best about it: it seems to take more effort to wash completely out of my hair, and it does sting your eyes if it gets in them which is not uncommon for shampoo, but is still a con. It also takes a bit longer to lather into my hair rather than squirting a liquid shampoo into it.

Overall I’m thrilled with it and will definitely buy it again. I was looking for a natural shampoo option but didn’t really want to try the whole vinegar wash thing since that seemed like a hassle, so I like that this is natural and also I can just buy it and don’t have to put much work into it. It also lasts for a long time.

Jack used to love brushing his teeth, but now that he’s almost 2 and has very strong opinions about everything it’s turning into a big struggle. I used to let him do it himself, but then I started doing it for him afterwards but that turned into a literal power struggle with me pinning down his hands which was a disaster for everyone. So now we’re back to letting him do it, but we haven’t been able to find a good way to get him to brush for longer than a few seconds.

Here are some things we’ve tried, and need to try more consistently probably:

Getting him an electric toothbrush is the only thing that helped a little. The first few days we got it, he brushed for a long time, but now he doesn’t anymore. At least I think it brushes more efficiently though. I have an electric one too, so he sometimes would try that and seemed to like the feeling of the vibration.

Telling his stuffed animals “I have a secret: Jack is great at brushing his teeth!” didn’t work at all, but I have a friend who says it works for her daughter.

Singing a song didn’t help.

Today we tried watching a tooth brushing video with a song while he brushed his teeth which worked for about 5 seconds.

We’ve tried having my husband or I brush at the same time, and seem very excited about it with no success.

I’ve also tried rewards like saying he can give the dog a treat which he loves to do after he brushes, and even giving him the reward in pieces during the process but no luck there either.

I think for now we’ll try the video for several more days to see if that works. It’s sad because I actually love brushing my teeth, so I really want Jack to have good associations with dental hygiene as well.